If the pyramids of Giza are not safe for tourists, how safe is the pharoah's solar boat, a wooden astral craft excavated next to the pyramids and displayed beside them? If holidaymakers are being told to avoid Cairo, is there a risk to the mesmerising, irreplaceable artefacts in its museum?

This is not speculation. It has been reported that a museum in Minya on the Upper Nile has already been looted in the current unrest. According to Ahram Online, an expert committee has found the museum to be almost completely ransacked. Heavy antiquities that couldn't be moved were vandalised, it says. The missing objects are being catalogued and will be added to Unesco's Red List of stolen antiquities.

The military-backed government may have its own reasons for promoting this story (it blames the Muslim Brotherhood) but photographs of the damage and theft make it clear something destructive has happened.

If you think it's perverse to mourn a museum when hundreds of people have been killed ... think of it this way: someone who loses their memory has lost part of who they are, part of their life. To lose ancient Egypt would be to lose the collective memory of humanity. It's unthinkable.

It is time for the Art Fund, the British Museum and any other body that takes responsibility for cultural heritage to speak up for the antiquities of Egypt. This is too important to wait until the worst happens. We can start by recognising that the pyramids and sarcophagi and statues of ancient Egypt are not just for tourists but part of a global inheritance, to be kept safe for all future generations.